President Donald Trump put a leash on Elon Musk Thursday, telling him to replace his chainsaw with a “scalpel” and that the Cabinet secretaries are in charge–not the billionaire.
The move came after a series of polls suggested Musk himself was less popular than his attempt to make government more efficient, and as one tiny federal agency succeeded in keeping DOGE staff at bay by locking them out of their office.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he has instructed Elon Musk’s government-busting troupe of youngsters and engineers to use a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” to downsize the federal workforce.
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“DOGE has been an incredible success, and now that we have my Cabinet in place, I have instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing,” Trump announced on Truth Social following a Cabinet meeting that Musk crashed on Thursday.
“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” the president continued. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’ The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.”
Citing two administration officials, Politico reported that Trump told Cabinet members Thursday that DOGE staff should only play an advisory role moving forward, with Cabinet secretaries ultimately making the final decision on staffing and policy for each department.
Trump spokesperson Harrison Fields told the outlet that the president “sets the agenda for the entire administration, and everyone is committed to implementing that mission in a unified fashion.”
After the meeting, Trump publicly assured his cabinet that they have the ultimate authority to hire and fire employees—not Elon Musk.
“I want the Cabinet members, go first, keep all the people you want. Everybody that you need,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He added that he planned to hold more regular cabinet meetings—“every two weeks until that aspect of this very necessary job is done”—to provide better oversight of Musk and his team at DOGE.
But Trump also laid out a clear warning to his cabinet as well: Start cutting, or Musk will do it for you.
“I want them to do the best job they can, when we have good people that’s precious, that’s very important and we want them to keep the good people,” Trump said, relaying what he said during Thursday’s meeting.
“So, we’re going to be watching them. Elon and the group are going to be watching them. If they can cut, it’s better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
The president went on to describe Thursday’s meeting as a “very positive one”—not acknowledging the weeks of chaos DOGE has created across the country.
Musk has publicly acknowledged a number of DOGE’s mistakes, even telling Republican lawmakers during a Wednesday meeting that that DOGE “can’t bat a thousand all the time.”
Among the panel’s mistakes were firing then rehiring crucial nuclear safety staff working on weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, as well as staff at the Department of Agriculture working on an ongoing H5N1 avian flu outbreak response.
DOGE also “accidentally” cut Ebola prevention while gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development, published classified information, and made a stunning number of errors on a website created to track its cuts.
The department has also faced scrutiny over the background of some of its own staffers after firing, then rehiring a 25-year-old engineer, Marko Elez, who made racist remarks online.
Musk also took another 19-year-old employee under his wing, known online as “Big Balls,” and reportedly helped propel him to a “senior adviser” role in the state department.
These oftentimes erratic moves made by Musk and DOGE have ultimately started to test the public’s approval for his mission.
In one February Washington Post-Ipsos poll, 49% of respondents said they disapproved of how Musk was doing his job, while just 34% approved.
A more recent poll conducted by CBS News and YouGov published March 2 saw 52% of respondents saying that Musk and DOGE have too much access to government data, though 42% of Republican respondents retained that Musk and DOGE should still have some influence over government spending.
DOGE’s bulldozing tactics have also met pushback in the form of dozens of lawsuits still snaking their way through the court system—and in a more literal sense through one of the smallest federal agencies in government this week, which refused to let the department’s staff into their building.
Employees at the U.S. African Development Foundation, which has a tiny budget of around $40 million, fended off DOGE’s cadets in a heated moment on Wednesday, though they have since accessed the building.
The young, backpack-wearing men spent much of the day trying to access the agency’s computer systems without any help from current employees. It’s unclear how much progress they have made.
The DOGE squad was accompanied Thursday by Pete Marocco, the State Department official tapped by Musk and Donald Trump to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and eliminate foreign aid programs they disapprove of.
On Wednesday, Musk also spoke virtually at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom conference, where he insinuated that both the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak need to be privatized.
“I think we should prioritize anything that can be privatized,” Musk said, according to NBC News.
